This invention pertains to a process and an apparatus for sterilizing by killing bacteria and similar organisms within a host. The host may be either a solid or a liquid.
Macy, U.S. Pat. No. 2,081,243, discloses apparatus for pasteurizing liquids only, such as milk, by "slow and intensive impulses of alternating electric current." These he produces by an interrupter at 3.33 times per second; the "interruptions literally exploding the bacteria." The temperature of the milk may also appreciably be raised by the process. The apparatus is of the coaxial flow-through type, having numerous parts.
Golden, U.S. Pat. No. 1,934,703, discloses a trough-like electrical sterilizing apparatus, having an internal central electrode and a pair of external flux-concentrator electrodes.
Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 1,975,805, discloses a dry type sterilizing apparatus, in which a high voltage upon a pair of rotating electrodes, coaxially spaced on opposite sides of a conveyor that carries the material to be sterilized, act upon the material.